Lyndon Johnson had long dreamed of this. The tall, skinny kid with big ears from the Texas Hill Country had entered politics out of college, just in time to see Franklin Roosevelt elected in 1932. Roosevelt became Johnson’s hero, the model of what a political leader could accomplish for the good of the American people. Johnson helped Roosevelt bring electricity to the Hill Country, in the process discovering in himself traits that made him think he too could be president one day.
One commentator said that if the US had played its cards right, Ho Chi Minh could have been the Tito of Southeast Asia, i.e. a moderate Communist and, just as Tito was a buffer against the Russians, Ho could have been a buffer against the Chinese. But victory became an obsession with LBJ. I remember him saying "we're not going to let a few runts in black pajamas (referring to the Viet Cong's uniforms) push the world's greatest nation around."
Perhaps if Vietnam had never occurred, LBJ would be more fondly remembered for his attempts at domestic reform. He certainly wouldn't have faced protestors rhetorically asking him how many kids he had killed on a daily basis...
Vietnam did NOT have to fall in 1975. Nixon's stupidity with Watergate and the subsequent GOP slaughter in Congress gave the Left the excuse to cut funding and air support for South Vietnam.
Nixon's bombing stopped the North's tank invasion in 1973 cold. It could have done the same in 1975.
Vietnam bombing was not a neo-Dresden campaign of carpet bombing. It was, especially in the 1973 invasion, used to stop organized (and often mechanized) armies.
The subsequent epic slaughters by the Communist North (250k dead boat people as an example) could have been prevented.
Johnson's dilemma reminds me of an anecdote regarding Obama and Biden. Biden reportedly told Obama to not "let the generals roll" him. In hindsight, it is probably why Biden decided to maintain the Trump-planned withdrawal schedule though it became messy. But then many withdrawals are messy. GOP complaint in this regard is simply political IMO. I remember the final withdrawal from Vietnam as navy men pushed helicopters into the ocean to make way for the next and people tried to clamber aboard helicopters departing the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon.
IMO Biden is threading a very Johnsonesque line here managing issues in Ukraine, Gaza and China while pushing a pro-people domestic agenda
One commentator said that if the US had played its cards right, Ho Chi Minh could have been the Tito of Southeast Asia, i.e. a moderate Communist and, just as Tito was a buffer against the Russians, Ho could have been a buffer against the Chinese. But victory became an obsession with LBJ. I remember him saying "we're not going to let a few runts in black pajamas (referring to the Viet Cong's uniforms) push the world's greatest nation around."
Perhaps if Vietnam had never occurred, LBJ would be more fondly remembered for his attempts at domestic reform. He certainly wouldn't have faced protestors rhetorically asking him how many kids he had killed on a daily basis...
Vietnam did NOT have to fall in 1975. Nixon's stupidity with Watergate and the subsequent GOP slaughter in Congress gave the Left the excuse to cut funding and air support for South Vietnam.
Nixon's bombing stopped the North's tank invasion in 1973 cold. It could have done the same in 1975.
Vietnam bombing was not a neo-Dresden campaign of carpet bombing. It was, especially in the 1973 invasion, used to stop organized (and often mechanized) armies.
The subsequent epic slaughters by the Communist North (250k dead boat people as an example) could have been prevented.
Johnson's dilemma reminds me of an anecdote regarding Obama and Biden. Biden reportedly told Obama to not "let the generals roll" him. In hindsight, it is probably why Biden decided to maintain the Trump-planned withdrawal schedule though it became messy. But then many withdrawals are messy. GOP complaint in this regard is simply political IMO. I remember the final withdrawal from Vietnam as navy men pushed helicopters into the ocean to make way for the next and people tried to clamber aboard helicopters departing the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon.
IMO Biden is threading a very Johnsonesque line here managing issues in Ukraine, Gaza and China while pushing a pro-people domestic agenda